Ball Bearing for dry hopping?

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Dougie63

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I may have made a big mistake when dry hopping, I read somewhere that some use marbles or ball bearings to weigh hop bag for dry hopping. Well, I used a large ball bearing, I boiled it with my hop bag for 10 minutes and then submerged them into a star san solultion. I bottled today and I noticed that the ball bearing turned black prolly from the acids from hops. Any danger? Dont seem to have changed the taste of My IPA.
 
Were they stainless steel ball bearings?

I would only use stainless or glass for weights for dry hopping.
 
Stainless steel ball bearings aren't commonly used because stainless is "softer" than carbon steel.

Tannic acid (tannins) will turn steel black and actually prevent it from rusting.
 
Tough call. I'll let someone else chine in on that.

I use the 1/2" bulkhead coupling to weigh down my bag.
 
I used cow magnets when I was't 'going commando' with my dry hops. The appropriate cow magents are stainless, magnetic (to pull all of that pesky iron out of the beer) and heavier than any stainless ball that can fit through a carboy neck. Google them, they are for sale on ebay as well.
 
I had never heard of cow magnets before so I wiki'd it and now I have some more useless information in my head. I did come across the term "tramp iron" which sounds awesome. Sounds like something an ex-wife would use to press a blouse.
 
so does anyone think its ok? this time?

It probably is, but I would not use them again.

It sounds like your ball are made of carbon steel since they tarnished. Carbon steel is used in knives and woks, so I guess you will be OK, but my lawyer advises me to not comment, so I'm not commenting officially. ;)
 
I think I'd go marbles next time. If the bb's aren't stainless or chrome plated, I'd think the iron in the steel would react with the acetic wort and give off iron taste.. like drinking water out of iron pipes.. or an iron cup. But, I'm no chemist.. and I've never used bb's.. other than in my Red Rider.. :ban:
 
To submerge the hops in the beer (maximizing the surface area and therefore exposure of the hops in the beer).

Otherwise, they just float on top, and (some) stay dry.

What is your dry hopping method Yooper?
 
To submerge the hops in the beer (maximizing the surface area and therefore exposure of the hops in the beer).

Otherwise, they just float on top, and (some) stay dry.

What is your dry hopping method Yooper?

Well, since you asked:
DSCF5914.jpg

That's two ounces of simcoe leaf hops with one ounce of amarillo pellets, dryhopped about an hour ago. All of the beer eventually soaks into the hops just fine, so I've never needed to bag them or add marbles or anything.
 
Well, since you asked:
View attachment 37376

That's two ounces of simcoe leaf hops with one ounce of amarillo pellets, dryhopped about an hour ago. All of the beer eventually soaks into the hops just fine, so I've never needed to bag them or add marbles or anything.

Yooper,

THAT LOOKS AWESOME.

Can I have a bottle of it? j/k :drunk:
 
I have found a use for that $20 Fushigi ball that my daughter wanted for Xmas last year! Those tricks looked so easy in the commercial : (
 
how do you strain the beer from the hops come bottling time?

The leaf hops tend to float, just as they are, while the pellets disintegrate. I hold the racking cane in the middle to start, and then lower the racking cane as the level of the beer drops. I stop when the siphon starts sucking up yeast cake, and then the top of the beer drops down to the trub level. I'm pretty proficient at it, as I was a winemaker first and racking is part of the game in winemaking, but it's not hard anyway.
 
Yooper, 11 days ago I brewed the AG version of your 60 minute clone. I just racked onto 1.5ozs of both amarillo and simcoe pellets.

I followed your style, and didn't use any type of strainer/weights.

Will the hop matter eventually settle to the bottom?

(ps the fg bottomed out at 1014, any idea why? I hit the mash temp perfectly and held it for the duration without losing more than a degree)

image-2759159081.jpg
 
(ps the fg bottomed out at 1014, any idea why? I hit the mash temp perfectly and held it for the duration without losing more than a degree)

I don't know.

ps Any idea why my car won't start? :D
 
Yooper, 11 days ago I brewed the AG version of your 60 minute clone. I just racked onto 1.5ozs of both amarillo and simcoe pellets.

I followed your style, and didn't use any type of strainer/weights.

Will the hop matter eventually settle to the bottom?

(ps the fg bottomed out at 1014, any idea why? I hit the mash temp perfectly and held it for the duration without losing more than a degree)

The 1.014 is ok- I bet the beer tastes great and that's the important thing. If it is a bit sweet for you this time, next time just lower your mash temp 2 degrees with the same beer. Everybody's system is a little different, and I usually have a tendency to overattenate so I mash a little higher than some other brewers.

The hop matter probably won't settle. Just start racking in the middle, and then lower the racking cane to avoid the floaties, and then lower the racking cane as the level drops. Eventually the trub and floaties will meet and you'll get almost all of the beer out without any hops debris.
 
I don't know.

ps Any idea why my car won't start? :D


No. But I could give you a checklist of things to look for. Is the car in park or neutral? Is your battery dead? Check your sparkplugs, they might be corroded. Is there gas in the tank?





******
 
The 1.014 is ok- I bet the beer tastes great and that's the important thing. If it is a bit sweet for you this time, next time just lower your mash temp 2 degrees with the same beer. Everybody's system is a little different, and I usually have a tendency to overattenate so I mash a little higher than some other brewers.

The hop matter probably won't settle. Just start racking in the middle, and then lower the racking cane to avoid the floaties, and then lower the racking cane as the level drops. Eventually the trub and floaties will meet and you'll get almost all of the beer out without any hops debris.

That's great, thanks. I tasted a sample when I was racking to secondary, and it tasted delicious! I can only imagine how good it will be after dry-hopping..

Thanks for the recipe!
 
No. But I could give you a checklist of things to look for. Is the car in park or neutral? Is your battery dead? Check your sparkplugs, they might be corroded. Is there gas in the tank?


Since my post seemed to pass right over your head, let me explain my point. Without any information, some one could write a book full of reasons why your fg stopped at a certain point, just like some one could write a book about why a car won't start.




Do you talk this way in public too?
 
The ball bearing still could be Stainless steel. there is different types of stainless. I know 304 Stainless will turning black in an acid environment. This happens is food Plants with the chemicals they use to wash down the equipment. It does not effect the steel or its sanitary properties. but it makes the machines look crappy. So that part of the reason why people go with 316 stainless steel in food applications.

But I would be surprised if the beer acidic enough in that short time to turn the stainless steel black.
 
i'm lucky enough to have a friend that blows glass. he made two big marbles for me. each is bigger than a golf ball, almost as big as a cue ball.
 
I too had a ball bearing turn gray. I'm assuming (after the fact) it was carbon steel rather than stainless. I put it inside a mesh bag with some orange peel for a week during secondary. When I pulled it out, I was horrified. The thing went from shiny silver to dull gray! It was also dripping some pretty bad looking gray water and had a strong metallic smell.
I was a bit worried about the beer so I let it sit for another week hoping it would settle out. I then ran it through a 2 micron filter just to be sure.
In the end, it still had a metallic twang but I drank it for the sake of time and effort.
I don't really have any advice for someone who's having this problem, but I for one will definitely use glass next time! Just because it's shiny, doesn't mean it's stainless!
 
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